In search, two heads are better than one

Toll Free Yellow Pages Corp. has launched SearchBoth.com, a web site that enables Internet users to simultaneously search Google and Yahoo. Users enter a search term or terms into a window on SearchBoth.com and results from both major search engines are displayed side by side in a split-screen frame.

The new site was created by Internet entrepreneur Bobby Kalili, founder of Internet incubation company Idea Labz Inc. and Toll Free Yellow Pages Corp. He created the site as a tool based on his own desire to use both search giants at the same time. The site does not sell ads nor is it designed to make money. It does, however, place small ads atop the home page to advertise other Idea Labz sites.

One current ad, for example, touts the company’s newly relaunched DiscountMore.com, which enables consumers to get the results of the top 26 comparison shopping sites all on one page. DiscountMore.com views comparison shopping sites like Shopping.com, PriceGrabber.com, ShopZilla.com, PriceRunner.com and Shopper.com essentially as search engines similar to Google and Yahoo—the difference being comparison shopping sites search for products and prices as opposed to news and web sites, the company says.

In April 3.6 billion U.S. searches were conducted at Google, according to research firm comScore Inc., while 2 billion were conducted on Yahoo. According to online measurement firm Hitwise, Google accounted for 65.26% of all U.S. Internet searches in April, up from 64.13% in March and 58.64% in April 2006. Yahoo was second in the April rankings with 20.37%, followed by MSN at 8.46% and Ask at 3.69%. SearchBoth.com is not affiliated with Google or Yahoo, both of which still rack up all clicks normally associated with searches and results.

The SearchBoth.com site recently expanded to Canada and plans to create sites for all English-speaking countries. The company also plans to expand to other countries, including France and Germany. Further, in the next two weeks Idea Labz will add new functionality to SearchBoth.com, adding the option to select for side-by-side comparisons other search engines, including Ask.com, MSN, Lycos and Infoseek, though Google and Yahoo will remain the default search services.